


Early after all

by blcwriter



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Academy Era, Angsty Schmoop, M/M, Originally Posted on LiveJournal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-29
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-06 17:15:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4230147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blcwriter/pseuds/blcwriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>  Jim stands Bones up for their first date.  Maybe.  Written as one of my offerings for the Team Jones Ship Wars prompt fill.  An excellent fic called "Ridiculous" won as our official offering, and now I'm learning the hard art of keeping it short. </p>
            </blockquote>





	Early after all

Author: blcwriter

Words: 998

Prompt:  First Date

Title:  Early after all  


Ship:  Kirk/McCoy   


Beta:  sangueuk

Rating: PG-13

Warning:  Language, SRSLY ridiculous H/C and schmoop  


Disclaimer:  Not mine, even if the Ferengi think I do have the lobes for business.  
  
Summary:  Jim stands Bones up for their first date.  Maybe.  Written as one of my offerings for the Team Jones Ship Wars prompt fill.  An excellent fic called "Ridiculous" won as our official offering, and now I'm learning the hard art of keeping it short.    
\--  
  
He knew a date with Jim was a damned bad idea.    
  
Ten minutes passed.  
  
_"Come on, Bones.  Dinner, a movie, maybe we'll have enough fun and enough beers to resolve our epic and unresolved sexual tension?"_  
  
Jim had waggled his eyebrows but his tone hadn't been joking.  His eyes had been wide-- solemn.  That contradictory sincerity had made Leonard say yes, his stomach churning when Jim said ' _we_ ' like that, bold as 'Fleet's shiniest brass.  
  
Now he stood outside Medical in his favorite shirt-- he'd even bought some new jeans.  For once, Leonard hadn't dawdled to chat about incoming cases.  He'd believed Jim's " _I'll meet you outside at seventeen-oh-five on the dot_."  
  
The infant had stood Leonard up.  
  
\--  
  
Halfway home, his comm chimed.  
  
"McCoy," he snarled.  
  
"McCoy, Xiu here.  A shuttle accident came in not long ago.  Mostly minor-- but the pilot's got a bad CBI.  I could use your neurografting technique."  
  
McCoy broke into a run.  He'd warned Jim not to be late.  Jim was notorious for last minute arrivals, sliding into his seat with a smile and a wink.  
  
" _Nah.  I don't have much going on, just some shuttle training for the firsties, water rescues and shit.  I'm just the pilot, the commanders have to teach the kids how to get the dummies into the shuttle_.  _It'll be a walk in the park.  Don't worry, Bones._ _For you, I'll be early_."  
  
Leonard'd said "Tell me another."  Jim had looked wounded, the damned little shit.  
  
\--  
  
He scanned the MRIs while Xiu gave him the run-down, then began barking orders.  
  
The O.R. burst into activity-- Leonard paused to decide which bleed was worst, precious nanoseconds wasting away.  He didn't have a precise internal clock, not like Jim.  His ultraviolet blue eyes were closed, the lids pallid and thin where he lay prepped on the table.    
  
It was those eyes that always did Leonard in, the way they belied Jim's myriad smiles, his backslapping and jokes.  Those eyes said things Jim wouldn't admit, things Leonard could read in his medical records and wouldn't dare ask his friend to discuss.  
  
"Walk in the park, kid," he reminded his friend.  He picked up the laser and started to cut.     
  
Some shit-for-brains started to lecture the residents in the back.  Leonard cauterized the blood seeping everywhere-- no doubt Jim had extra vascular tissue, accounting for the whole genius thing and how Jim capered among conversations like a damned billy goat, bouncing around during meals as he socialized madly.  He usually told Jim stick to one conversation because Jim was making him dizzy.  Right now, he just wanted Jim to _stop fucking bleeding_.    
  
"Shut the fuck up," he growled.  "I'm grafting the stem lines Nurse Q-gh-tcha is layering in, three second bursts of the laser at 80 degrees."    
  
There was a snicker. Leonard kept talking.  He'd never minded lecturing while he worked-- it helped him to focus.  "The patient's idiosyncratic vascular supply..."  
  
\--  
  
There was a wheeze.  Leonard abandoned his PADD, sitting forward and inspecting his patient-- his friend.  Jim.    
  
"Hey."  Jim licked paper-dry lips.  Bleary blue eyes with even, symmetrical pupils leveled on him.  "Bones."  
  
"That'd be me," Leonard rasped.  
  
E.R. records showed Jim had arrived at sixteen-fifty-three, while Leonard was taking a shower.  If he'd stopped off on his way out the door for his usual chat he'd have known Jim was in the E.R.  He'd have had twenty more minutes to work.  Jim might not have coded three times and nearly made Leonard's heart stop.  
  
"You know," he began.  "You were early, but I distinctly recall you saying you'd meet me outside, not _inside my O.R._ "  
  
Jim's face crumpled.  The monitor bleeped as Jim's blood pressure fell, objective proof Leonard was an asshole.  Because the tears turning Jim's eyes navy blue weren't enough.  
  
"Hey.  S'okay," Leonard said, shifting.  "Just-- never unscrambled a brain on a first date before."  Awkwardly, because berating his best friend and making him cry really wasn't his style, he rubbed the back of Jim's neck.  
  
"Sorry." Jim turned his face into the pillow.  
  
"Don't be.  It was a malfunction, if you hadn't crashed it at that precise angle, everyone'd be dead.  The antigravs were all shot."  
  
"Thought so."  Jim's voice was weak.  
  
Leonard was only bold in the O.R., the only place he just _knew_ what would work.  He wasn't Jim, brave when life smacked him down over and over.  Well, fuck that cowardly shit.  
  
"Push over," he said, kicking his boots to the floor.  "Next time, I'm picking you up.  At your dorm, where you will stay in all day, just to be sure."  
  
He rearranged Jim until he was flat on his back and Leonard lay on his side.  His hand lined Jim's stubbled cheek so the man couldn't look in some other direction.  
  
"Next time?"  Leonard nodded, and Jim stared back before swallowing hard.  "Told you I would be early."  His smile wobbled.  
  
Leonard smiled and kissed Jim's badly-chapped lips.  "Yes.  Yes you did."    
  
Jim's smile lit up his eyes.  Leonard kissed the small crinkles, even if his reputation as a crank would be ruined should someone walk in.  Fuck if he cared-- he'd always kissed on the first date.  
  
Even just woken from a not-coma, his mouth rank and his grip on Leonard's sleeve shaky-- Jim was a fine kisser.  Not that he'd say so-- Leonard was so tired he'd say something awful again.  He drew up the covers and looped his arm over Jim's chest.  
  
"You gonna tell th' grandkids we slept together on th' first date?" Jim mumbled.  
  
"Yeah.  And you snored like a pig."  
  
Jim snorted, the puff of breath soft on Leonard's cheek.  "Still was early."  
  
Leonard kissed his closed eyelids.  "Yeah, kid.  You were early after all.  I was the one who was almost too late."  
  
"Wha?"    
  
"Sleep.  I'll tell you later.  We've got all the time in the world."  
  
Jim smiled and mumbled.  "Like that."  
  
He watched Jim's face smooth into real sleep, a small smile still on his face.  
  
"Me too, Jim.  Me too."


End file.
